©Jeff Liao
Part of orientation week at SVA is comprised of lectures by visiting artists. Today I had the pleasure to meet and listen to Jeff Liao, a photographer who documents NYC. When I first viewed his images, I thought to myself, great panoramas. But, as he spoke more about how he works and his technique, I started to understand that his work was not panorama for panorama’s sake, but a delicately constructed reality. For example, in his series Habitat 7, he documented the 7 subway line and the environment around it. He used an 8×10 camera and in each expedition, would take several negatives from one spot of the surrounding landscape. After he documented this landscape, he took the negatives and created the landscape in Photoshop. The result is a hyper-real image that is, dare I say, mystical in composition. He slowed down and sped up exposure times for different negatives with the result being a mix of things in motion and still. While the quality and colors of the images remain documentary and “true to life”, the content leaves one considering a reality that only exists in his imagery. If you are in the NYC area on October 4th, you should check out his opening at the Bronx Museum of Art.